Against a background of the troubles of the American financial system and the European financial crisis, China and India continue to post strong rates of growth. Politically and economically the center of world politics is moving toward Asia. What does this mean for the US-centered system of international power and politics that largely shaped the post World War Two world?

About the speaker

Walter Russell Mead is the James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College and Editor-at-Large of “The American Interest.” Mr. Mead is also a Brady-Johnson Distinguished Fellow in Grand Strategy at Yale, where he has taught in the Yale International Security Studies Program since 2008. His book Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World (Alfred A. Knopf, 2001) was widely hailed by reviewers, historians, and diplomats as an important study that will change the way Americans and others think about American foreign policy. Among several honors and prizes, Special Providence received the Lionel Gelber Award for the best book in English on international relations in 2002. The Italian translation won the “Premio Acqui Storia,” awarded to the most important historical book published in Italian.